Geoffrey Fieger | |
---|---|
Personal details | |
Political party | Democratic |
Spouse | Kathleen Fieger |
Relatives | Doug Fieger (brother) |
Education | University of Michigan (BA, MA) Detroit College of Law (JD) |
Website | Official website |
Geoffrey Fieger is an American attorney based in Southfield, Michigan. [1] Fieger is the founder of the law firm Fieger Law, and is an occasional legal commentator for NBC and MSNBC. His practice focuses on personal injury, civil rights litigation and medical malpractice cases.
Fieger served as the defense attorney for Jack Kevorkian and was an unsuccessful Democratic nominee for governor of Michigan in 1998.
Fieger grew up in Oak Park, Michigan, a northern suburb of Detroit, Michigan, the son of June Beth (née Oberer) and Bernard Julian Fieger. [2] Fieger's father was Jewish, and his mother was of Norwegian descent. [3] He earned B.A. (Theater, 1974) and M.A. (Speech) degrees from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor in 1976 and his J.D. from the Detroit College of Law (now the Michigan State University College of Law) in 1979.
Fieger and his wife Kathleen have three children and live in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. Fieger is the older brother of the late Doug Fieger, lead vocalist of the late-'70s/early-'80s rock group The Knack, best known for their hit song "My Sharona" in 1979.
Fieger has been involved with a variety of high-profile or controversial cases. In 1994, he represented Jack Kevorkian in the first of several doctor-assisted suicide trials. Kevorkian was acquitted in that trial and all subsequent trials where Fieger represented him. (Kevorkian was convicted when he represented himself in his last assisted suicide trial in 1999.) These events were made into a movie, You Don't Know Jack , aired on HBO, in which Fieger was portrayed by actor Danny Huston.
Other notable clients and cases include:
In 1998, Fieger ran unsuccessfully as the Democratic nominee for Governor of Michigan. During the campaign Fieger made several inflammatory and controversial comments and statements, including
In 1997, Fieger donated four million dollars to the Detroit College of Law, now the Michigan State University College of Law, to start the nation's first trial practice institute for law students, which was named the Geoffrey Fieger Trial Practice Institute. [16]
Fieger appeared as one of the attorneys on the reality TV series Power of Attorney , and was opposing counsel in an episode of NBC's The Law Firm .
In August 2007, Fieger was indicted on federal campaign finance charges; the U.S. government alleged that Fieger had illegally funneled $127,000 to John Edwards' 2004 presidential campaign. Fieger was defended by famed defense attorney Gerry Spence, who announced this would be his last case. A jury acquitted Fieger of all 10 charges, and Fieger's co-defendant and law partner Ven Johnson on five charges, on June 2, 2008. Johnson stated that the charges were politically motivated. [17]
Murad Jacob "Jack" Kevorkian was an American pathologist and euthanasia proponent. He publicly championed a terminal patient's right to die by physician-assisted suicide, embodied in his quote, "Dying is not a crime". Kevorkian said that he assisted at least 130 patients to that end. He was convicted of murder in 1999 and was often portrayed in the media with the name of "Dr. Death".
Kwame Malik Kilpatrick is an American politician, convicted fraudster and racketeer, who previously served as the 72nd mayor of Detroit – from 2002 to 2008. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously represented the 9th district in the Michigan House of Representatives from 1997 to 2002. Kilpatrick resigned as mayor in September 2008 after being convicted of perjury and obstruction of justice. He was sentenced to four months in jail and was released on probation after serving 99 days.
The murder of Scott Amedure occurred on March 9, 1995, at his mobile home in Lake Orion, Michigan. The 32-year-old was killed by 24-year-old Jonathan Schmitz, three days after the men appeared as guests for a taping of an episode of the tabloid talk show The Jenny Jones Show. Amedure had publicly revealed in the episode that he had a crush on Schmitz, who claimed that he was straight but flattered by the revelation. On the morning of March 9, Amedure left a sexually suggestive note on Schmitz's apartment doorstep. In response, Schmitz purchased a 12-gauge shotgun, confronted Amedure at his home, and fired two shots into Amedure's chest. Schmitz called 911 to report the killing and he was subsequently arrested.
Michael Anthony Cox is an American attorney and politician who served as Michigan's 52nd Attorney General from 2003 to 2011. He was the first Republican to hold that office since Frank Millard in 1955. Cox took office in 2003 and won re-election in 2006. Jennifer Granholm, who went on to become the Governor of Michigan, preceded him in office.
Gerald Leonard Spence is a semi-retired American trial lawyer and author. He is a member of the Trial Lawyer Hall of Fame, and is the founder of the Trial Lawyers College. Spence has never lost a criminal case before a jury either as a prosecutor or a defense attorney, and did not lose a civil case between 1969 and 2010. He is considered one of the greatest lawyers of the 20th century, and one of the best trial lawyers ever. He was described by Richard Falk as a "lawyer par excellence".
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Douglas Lars Fieger was an American musician, singer and songwriter. He was the rhythm guitarist and lead vocalist of the rock band the Knack. He co-wrote "My Sharona," the biggest hit song of 1979 in the U.S., with lead guitarist Berton Averre.
Lucian Lincoln Wood Jr. is an American former attorney who made claims about the existence of widespread election fraud during the 2020 US presidential election. He has faced legal sanctions for lawsuits made in furtherance of these claims in the state of Michigan. In July 2023, while facing investigation and possible disciplinary action by the State Bar of Georgia for violating the Georgia Rules of Professional Conduct, Wood surrendered his law license and asked to retire rather than face disbarment.
The 1998 Michigan gubernatorial election was held on November 3, 1998, to elect the Governor and Lieutenant Governor of the state of Michigan. Incumbent Governor John Engler, a member of the Republican Party, was re-elected over Democratic Party nominee Geoffrey Fieger, a lawyer who had represented the assisted suicide advocate Jack Kevorkian. As of 2024, this was the last time Genesee County and Washtenaw County voted for the Republican gubernatorial candidate.
You Don't Know Jack is a 2010 American made-for-television biopic written by Adam Mazer and directed by Barry Levinson. It stars Al Pacino, John Goodman, Danny Huston, Susan Sarandon, and Brenda Vaccaro.
Aiyana Mo'Nay Stanley-Jones was a seven-year-old African-American girl from Detroit's East Side who was shot in the neck and killed by police officer Joseph Weekley during a raid conducted by the Detroit Police Department's Special Response Team. The Team was targeting a suspect in the apartment a floor above Jones' on May 16, 2010. Her death drew national media attention and led U.S. Representative John Conyers to ask U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder for a federal investigation into the incident.
Elias Abuelazam, also known as Elias Abullazam, is an Israeli convicted murderer, and a suspect of serial killings and stabbings with a racial motive. He is suspected in a string of eighteen stabbing attacks from May to August 2010 which resulted in five deaths. Most of the alleged attacks occurred in Genesee County, Michigan. Five stabbings occurred elsewhere: three in Leesburg, Virginia, one in Toledo, Ohio, and one in his native home in Ramla, Israel. All of his alleged victims were described as "small framed" men, most of them African Americans.
Warren Kenneth Paxton Jr. is an American politician and lawyer who has served as the attorney general of Texas since 2015. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served in the Texas Senate representing the eighth district and as a member of the Texas House of Representatives.
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Delphine Allen et al. v. City of Oakland was a civil rights lawsuit in Federal District Court regarding police misconduct in Oakland, California which has resulted in ongoing Federal oversight. Plaintiffs alleged mistreatment at the hands of four veteran officers, known as the "Riders", who were alleged to have kidnapped, planted evidence, and beaten citizens. Plaintiffs also alleged that the Oakland Police Department (OPD) turned a blind eye to police misconduct.
The Flint water crisis was a public health crisis that started in 2014 after the drinking water for the city of Flint, Michigan was contaminated with lead and possibly Legionella bacteria. In April 2014, during a financial crisis, state-appointed emergency manager Darnell Earley changed Flint's water source from the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department to the Flint River. Residents complained about the taste, smell, and appearance of the water. Officials failed to apply corrosion inhibitors to the water, which resulted in lead from aging pipes leaching into the water supply, exposing around 100,000 residents to elevated lead levels. A pair of scientific studies confirmed that lead contamination was present in the water supply. The city switched back to the Detroit water system on October 16, 2015. It later signed a 30-year contract with the new Great Lakes Water Authority (GLWA) on November 22, 2017.
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"Revealing Same Sex Secret Crush" is an episode of the American tabloid talk show The Jenny Jones Show. Taped on March 6, 1995, in Chicago, Illinois, the episode was intended to air in May 1995 as part of the show's fourth season. The episode featured six guests who were invited to meet a self-proclaimed secret admirer. The guests, however, were not directly informed that their secret admirers were all of the same sex as them. Each secret admirer publicly revealed their crush to a guest, with presenter Jenny Jones interviewing the two afterwards. Three days after the episode was taped, one of the guests, Jonathan Schmitz, killed his secret admirer, Scott Amedure. As a result, the episode was shelved and Schmitz was charged with first-degree murder. The episode was eventually broadcast on October 17, 1996, as part of Court TV's coverage of an ensuing civil trial against The Jenny Jones Show.
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